Game-table.



Patentad June 4, l90l.

J. C. SCHANK.

GAME TABLE.

(Application filed Feb. 11, 1001.

(No Model.)

lwlllumi ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN C. SCIIANK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE I3RUNS\VICK- BAIIKE-COIJIIENDER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

GAM E-TABLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 675,842, dated. June 4, 1901.

Application filed February 11, 1901. Serial No. 46,763. (No model.)

To all wit/mt if; nm/y concern.-

Be itlcnown that I, JOHN C. SCHANK, of Chicago, Cook county, State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in 5 Game-Tables; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to game-tables of that species adapted to the playing upon its surface of some sort of game involving the use of one or more balls and the playing of one of such balls by the stroke of a billiard-cue.

The genus of the game or games for which the table is designed is such as to involve the use of at least one ball, the use of a stick or one to drive such ball from the players end to the opposite end of the tables playing-surface, and some sort of cupped or recessed surface at the players end of the table into the recesses of which the played ball or balls returns or return and settle to make counts, and the species of games to the playing of which the table is adapted are such that with the use of either one or two balls and a one or stick to play one of them with, while the other is spotted, counts with either one or both balls can be made by one or both balls returning or rolling home into cups or pocketlike receptacles which are severally numbered to represent different values.

My new game-table has been extensively introduced into public use for the playing thereon of several different games and has acquired the name of and is already widely known as the Monte Carlo table, while some of the games played thereon are respectively denominated as French Monte Carlo, as High-nu mber Monte Carlo, and as Odd or even Monte Carlo, though of course other games otherwise named may be played on or devised for the table and the name by which the latter has come to be generally known is not material to the subject-matter of my invention.

In the drawings accompanying this specification and forming part thereof I have shown one of my novel construction of game-tables at Figure 1 in top view. Fig. 2 is a partial vertical central section of the same at a: 00,

Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a partial vertical section of the same at the line y y of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section at the line of Fig.

1, audio the several figures the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference.

The bed A of the table, which is supported at a proper elevation by legs, (not seen in the drawings,) has a surrounding upwardly- 6o projecting strip or fillet I) of the sufficient height to prevent the rolling off of the balls used on the playing-surface, which latter is covered, preferably, with cloth, somewhat after the fashion of a billiard-table bed, with the exception ofa rearend portion, on which rests and is secured a finished wooden device 0, the top so rface of which is indented or formed with a series of hemispherical recesses or cupshaped depressions which are numbered 1, 7o 2, 3, &c., as shown. This device 0, with its rear and two upwardly-flared surfaces (l and e e, completely covers over the top of the bed proper from the rear end fillet b to a certain line forward thereof and in between two longitudinal upwardly-projecting strips ff, which, as shown, (see Fig. 1,) extend from the rear fillet or edging b to a point approximately midway of the table lengthwise of the table-bed, and the top surface of said part O lies, as shown, (see Fig. 2,) in an oblique plane, extending upwardly and rearwardly from a line at its forward edge coincident with the plane of the table-bed A to a horizontal line at the rear fillet Z), considerably higher.

The presence of the two parallel verticallyprejecting strips ff, arranged as shown, (see particularly Fig. 1,) creates, of course, two narrow channels 1 9 between these devicesff and the edging-fillets b b at either side of the 0 table, and each of these channels is partially filled in during about half its length with block-like devices It and "6. One of these, 2", is a sort of filling-in that merely narrows the channel, as shown, to a width slightly greater than the diameter of the cue-ball to be used and serves as a rest or receptacle for the cueball, as illustrated at Fig. 1, where m is the ball, while the other one, h, is a solid block dished out on a taper horizontally (see a, Fig. I00 3) to permit the use of a billiard-cue to play the ball at with and, if deemed expedient, to

serve as a sort of support or bridge in using the cue.

A portion of the bed proper is covered over by a filling a, as shown, which extends up to about the level of the top edge of the surrounding fillet l1, and the inner edge of this filling (L is, as seen at Z, curved in the arc of a circle the radius of which is considerably greater than half the width of the playing-surface of the table-bed, from which it follows that rather angular points in the upwardly-projecting ball-retaining fillets l) of the table are formed at the points .9 s.

Each of the partition-like stripsff is chamfered otf at its end, so as as to present in plan view a wedge-shaped con figuration, as seen at t 2, for a purpose to be presently explained.

Besides the cue-ball (seen at m) another ball a is employed in most or all games so far played on my new gametable, and this ball is spotted, preferably at about the point shown, which is the imaginary center of the circular arc Z, that bounds the rear end of the playingsurface of the table.

The degree of obliquity of the table-bed lengthwise should be such that whenever the cue-ball 071. shall have been played with force enough to pass out of and beyond the channel g in which it started it will roll toward the players end of the table with sutlicient force to mount or roll up onto the oppositelyinclined cupped-out device 0 and lodge in some one of its numbered depressions, and so, also, that in the event of the spotted ball at being disturbed or knocked off of its spot (never so gently) it will roll toward and in like manner mount the oblique-surfaced device C and settle in one of the counting depressions of the latter.

There being two cue-ball or ball-playing channels or alleys 7g, one at each side of the table, the latter is equally well adapted for use by both right-handed and left handed persons or players, and, furthermore, provision is made for certain contingencies during the playing of games, such as the passage of the cue-ball when struck in a circuit from one channel 9 clear around and back homeward in the other; also, the passage of the red or spot ball when forcibly struck into either one of the two alleys g, accordingly as it may be affected by the stroke of a right-handed or a left-handed player.

The following explanation of the playing of or directions for the playing on my gametable of what is known as the Monte Carlo game will sulfice to disclose the operations in practical use of the contrivance so far described as to its construction. Two or more players can engage in the game, and the order of play may be determined by banking for lead, which means that upon successively playing the cue-ball an out of either alley g and having it roll home onto the cupped-out board or device 0 the player who shall have scored the biggest count shall have first play and so on in order, (according to the counts made by the respective players in banking,) and the order of play having been decided number one makes his play, his score or count being kept or recorded in any desired manner, and so on until all have played. Four shots by each player constitute the game or rather the duration of a game, and in making each shot or stroke the red ball 1) is supposed to be on its spot and the cue-ball in the position (in one or the other of the alleys g) seen atm, Fig. 1. Whenever the cueball after having been struck or played with the cue departs from the alley g and travels eircuitously toward and around the rear end of the table-bed and passes thence back again to the players end of the table in the other alley (without, of course, making any count) such play counts as one shot by the person so playing the ball, and whenever in playing a player fails during three consecutive strokes of the cue to send the cue-ball at out of or beyond the alley in which the cue-ball lies when struck such three futile efforts to send the cue-ball far enough to not roll home again inside of the alley count against or stand for the player as one shot. \Vhenever the cue-ball after having been played just hard enough to pass out of its alleyand return over the inclined bed of. the table to the cupped device G mounts onto the same and settles in one of the recesses in C the number or value of the depression in which said ball settlesis counted or scored as part of the players game, and in like manner is counted as part of each players score any such counts made by him. Vhenever the red 0r spot ball a is knocked off its spot by the cue-ball played byany one and said red ball rolls toward the players end of the table and settles in any one of the cup-shaped recesses in C the playeris accredited with a count or score always double the amount marked on such depression of C, and if at the same stroke the cue-ball also settles in one of said depressions he of course is entitled also to the amount marked on such cupthat is to say, at each of the countingstrokes so far mentioned a player is credited with the value of whatever cup the cue-ball may settle in and also (in the event of the spot-ball or red also rolling into one of the cups) to double the value as marked of any cup of 0 into which the red ball may roll. In the event of the red ball 11?, after having been struck by the cue-ball, passing into either one of the alloys 7 the player of the stroke is entitled to count in addition to what he may score with the cue-ball one hundred points for this action of the red ball.

It will be understood, in conclusion, as to this game that the lodgment of the red ball in any recess of the device C always counts for double the marked value of said recess, while in the case of the cue-ball the counts are according to the marked values of the several cups.

Of course the player who at the end of the game (four shots to each player) shall have made the highest score or greatest total count wins the game.

So far in practice I have made my game-table with a bed or playing-surface approximately eight feet long and three feet wide; but both the size and the exact proportions are immaterial in practicing my invention.

I use in practice rubber compound or other composition balls of a size about one and three-quarter inches in diameter; but neither the size of nor the material composing the balls is a matter essential to my invention, so long as the balls are preferably comparatively noiseless and possess a desirable degree of elasticity, though the sizes of the balls and the recesses in the part 0 should comport and the structure of the table at 20 (see Figs. 1 and 3) should be such relatively to the size of the cue-ball as to afford a free and proper opportunity for the player to strike the ball properly with the cue.

As I have hereinbefore remarked, several other games may be and now are in actual practice played on my new game-table; but it is not deemed necessary to enlarge this specification with the rules or any explanations of any of such other games, my invention relating wholly to the table or contrivance, and I have above explained one manner of using the table in the playing of the game described.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a game-table, the combination, with an oblong bed, or playing-surface, lying in a plane oblique to the horizon and bounded by a curved ball-retaining, upward, projection at its rear end, of an oppositely-oblique bedsurface, at the players end formed, or provided with ball-receptacles of various values;

substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a game-table, the combination, with an oblong, inclined bed, or playing-surface, having a ball-retaining perimeter, an oblique, receptacled, ballreceiving device at the players end narrower than the said bed; and alleys located on either side of said bed-receiver; all in substantially the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In a game-table, the combination, with a bed, or playing-surface, inclined down- Wardly from the foot toward the players end of the table; a reversely-inelined receptacled, narrower, ball-receiving surface at the players end; alleys, or channels for the playing out of and reception into them of balls; and a curved. ball-retaining device Z, at the rear end of the table-bed, comprising an arc of a circle of greater radius than half the width of the table; so as to form the angularities at s, s, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a game-table, the combination, with a suitable, inclined, bed A, having ball-retaining devices at its perimeter; a reverselyinclined ball-receptacled device C; and alleys g, g, on either side thereof, of partition-like strips f, f, each of which has its end i, chamfered as shown, to guide any ball or balls traveling home to the players end of the table toward and onto the ball-receiving device C.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of February,

JOHN C. SCI IANK.

In presence of- FRED. J. LoEwE, JonN EHRENPRnIs. 

